A
CUP of ALOHA; the Kona Coffee Epic, by Gerald Y. Kinro
I
thought that I knew a fair amount about Kona coffee, but I was
wrong. The
author (who grew up on a Kona coffee farm) says exactly the same
thing. The coffee industry has gone through a number of transformations
during its 175 years in Hawai`i. So if you were involved in
the industry for "only" 20 years, you would only see a
small part of the story! I couldn't put this book down because
it's actually high drama! Many times in its history, coffee
growing in the Islands has been pronounced dead by experts, but each
time the farmers have bounced back (often just barely). Survival
often meant changing old ways, introducing something totally new,
or following the lead of a particular individual. Being a
Kona coffee farmer has never been easy, and it still isn't. Kinro
packs the entire story of the Kona coffee industry on the Big Island
(and its grower's and promoter's business and social histories)
into this small, very readable little book.
WOW
!! Herb Kane has produced another incredible book. Designed as a
classroom book, anyone who reads this 110 page marvel will be VERY impressed
with the "sweep, clarity and authority of the writing," in the
words of Kalani Meinecke, Head of Hawaiian Studies at the Windward Community
College on O`ahu. Kane covers ALL of the major facets of Hawaiian
civilization in a style that rivets your attention. One of the most
amazing things about it is the clarity of Kane's vision of what ancient
Hawaii was really like. He is a passionate supporter (and member
of) the Hawaiian culture himself. (Kane served as the first captain
of the voyaging canoe replica Hokulea, which has logged over 60,000 miles
in Polynesian oceans!) Yet he manages to view the past of his own
culture with a simultaneously sympathetic, realistic and honest view.
There is no attempt here to portray the culture through rose colored glasses,
yet the brilliant accomplishments, beauty and dignity of the ancient culture
shine through in this honest presentation of it. There is a lot
of unrealistic glorification of ancient Hawaii around these days - this
book is a major milestone in painting an honest view in a totally absorbing
fashion. It's riveting, easy to read, scholarly and copiously illustrated
with Kane's wonderful paintings. You
can also visit his web
site !!
To
give you an idea of the incredible scope of this book, here are the chapter
headings: The Discoverers of Hawaii; Origins; Tahitian Conquest; Navigators;
Polynesian Genesis; Worlds Apart; The Land; Chiefs; Mana and Rank; Kahuna;
The Power of Words; Reciprocity; Makahiki; Warfare; Commoners; Untouchables;
Food; The Ancient Landscape; Fishing; Planting; Kapa; Tools; Canoes; Performing
Arts; Sports and Games.
This is another
"must have." No single book that I have ever seen will
give you as complete and succinct an understanding of the Hawaiian culture
as this one.
Peppo's
Pidgin to da Max and Pidgin to da Max Hana Hou, by
many authors & contributors (but mainly Peppo, Ken and Pat), 2002,
Bess Press
Now… if you really want to have some fun with pidgin, these are
two great books. However, if you do read them, it's best to head the
warning at the beginning: "A WORD OF CAUTION TO THE NON-LOCAL. If
you don't already speak pidgin, …[this book] is not a tourist guide
to pidgin. So don't try to speak it after reading this book. You'll just
get into trouble." It's good advice.
Both of these little books are in basically cartoon format and present
commonly used pidgin words in dictionary order (there's really no other
way to do it). Some definitions are really short, like "HANAI -
Adopted." Others are longer (which is another reason that pidgin
is great - it's efficient), such as "LIKE: To want or want to. Haloe:
'May I have the pleasure of this dance?' Pidgin: 'You like dance?'" (This
is another funny technique the authors use a lot; the "haole" vs. "pidgin" example.)
Here's another one: "These belong to me, and I'd appreciate it if
you left them alone" vs. "Mine, you!" While reading these
books, you'll be quite amazed at the versatility of pidgin, even if you
can't quite understand it yet!
This
is a WONDERFUL book !! It's a compilation of stories about 12 modern
Hawaiians trying to live their lives in accordance with and in honor of
old Hawaiian traditions. Each chapter is focused on a specific and
critical aspect of the Hawaiian culture and way of life. The chapters
are: 1)
Mahi`ai / Farming 2) Mele / Music
3) Hula / Dance 4) Olelo Hawai`i / Hawaiian Language
5) Hoe Wa`a / Canoe Paddling 6) He`e Nalu / Surfing
7) Kapa / Tapa Cloth 8) Lapa`au / Healing 9) Pono /
Rigtheousness 10) Ho`omana / Religion
Na
Mamo also features 14 chants and songs written by Hawaiians and 60 images
of native Hawaiians and their lives by award-winning native photographer
Anne K. Landgraf. "Tending the land, teaching, hula, creating
cloth from bark, making medicine from plants; these Hawaiians and their
families live in the modern world while honoring age-old traditions."
Jay's
style is very engaging - you will find this book a very enlightening experience
and very hard to put down! Na Mamo even has it's own web
site !!
This little
booklet covers tattooing not just in Hawai`i, but in all of Polynesia.
What's important about it is that it puts Hawaiian tattooing in perspective
with the practices in Tonga, Samoa, the Marquesas Islands, Easter Island
and the Tuamotu Islands. As far as I can tell, the material seems
pretty accurate, and there are a lot of good illustrations too.
At only 33 pages, there's not a lot of depth here, but it's a good introduction.
For a more comprehensive book on Hawaiian Tattooing, go HERE.
NANA I KE KUMU (Look to the Source),
by Pukui, Haertig and Lee
VOLUME
ONE
VOLUME
TWO
This two-volume
set created quite a stir when the first volume was published in 1972 .
Volume II followed later in 1979. Many Hawaiians hold strongly to
a fair number of beliefs that come from "old Hawaii" - some
even from pre-Christian times. Many of these beliefs affect the
provision of medial care; many Hawaiian concepts and world-views are very
different to those of modern medicine, and medical practitioners of all
kinds who come from the mainland typically have NO training in island
ways. This isn't to say that island beliefs are backwards,
they are just DIFFERENT in many cases. It's an important
distinction !!
These texts were prepared to explain a lot of those old belief systems.
The first volume is an in-depth discussion "of major Hawaiian culture
concepts, providing insights into both their ancient and modern significance."
Volume two "traces the ancient Hawaiian social customs, practices
and beliefs from birth to old age." One of the focuses of both
volumes is to explain the relevance of "old Hawaii" to the present
and to dispel misconceptions. This set is pure gold; it will
significantly broaden your understanding of the Hawaiian culture!
A hefty 6-pound "coffee-table
book," Finding Paradise almost ended up in two volumes. It features
objects and artworks culled from private collections and from the Academy’s
holdings, using some 500 images to document collections of stone, wood,
bone, feather and fiber; paintings and drawings; books and photographs;
jewelry; souvenirs; furniture; ukuleles; etc. Many of the items shown
here have never been seen by the public before. Some of the items from
private collections are things that museums typically don't have because
they were deemed to be "beneath them" to collect at the time
that they were easily available. Postage stamps are a good example;
one Hawaiian stamp recently sold for $2 million!
Essays by some of Hawaii’s most prominent collectors, museum curators
and historians examine the role these collections have played in popularizing—and
sometimes distorting—Hawaii’s image beyond its shores. Finding
Paradise represents an excellent synergy between two often very different
types of collections and was also an excellent learning opportunity for
the Honolulu Academy of Arts. Producing it was kind of a "high-brow
meets low-brow" opportunity for both "sides." If you like
Hawaiiana, or are just plain interested in Hawaiian culture and history,
this is a beautifully done "must have" book.
David Malo was
born in 1795, not far from Kealakekua Bay, where Captain Cook was killed
sixteen years before. In 1831 he started attending the mission high
school at Lahainaluna, Maui (the first American school west of the Rockies).
He quickly learned to read and write Hawaiian. Fortunately,
one of the ministers at the school started a seminar in which students
collected information about Hawaii's past. David Malo wrote his
own history of Hawaii in 1840, making it one of the earliest written accounts
of Hawaii. What makes this work unique is that Malo actually grew up under
the old kapu system and worshipped the old gods. Malo's text wasn't
even translated into English until 1903. The current edition has
been revised and corrected slightly. Any serious study of the Hawaiian
culture has to include this text, for there is no other text available
written in Hawaiian by a Hawaiian who lived before the kapu system was
overthrown.
This is a
reprint of Bulletin #34 of the Bishop Museum in Honolulu. It's a
very scholarly work by a world-renowned expert on Polynesia. It's
a little hard to read, but it's an excellent, comprehensive text on Polynesian
religion (and the only one that I've seen).
This little book
is a collaboration of two VERY distinguished Hawaiian scholars.
Mary Kawena Pukui was born and raised in the then-remote Ka`u district
of the Big Island, so she writes from intimate, first-hand experience.
This is an absolutely fascinating cultural tour-de-force, and is essential
for an understanding of old Hawaii. A sampling of the subjects covered
here are manners and customs relating to birth, death, marriage, sexual
practices, religious beliefs and family relationships. The material
in this book is based on original field work and comes mainly from elderly
(in 1958) Hawaiians. There is no other book that will give you a
better feel for what living in the Hawaiian culture was like. I
like this book so much, that I just had to see if there were any originals
left; it was first published in 1958 by the Polynesian Society in Wellington
New Zealand. Quess what? I FOUND one (via the Internet,
of course).
This isn't a natural
history book about plants; it is an excellent, very thorough discussion
of the multitude of inventive uses Hawaiians made of the wide variety
of plants they had available to them (many of which they brought with
them, of course). The books focus is on the period before European
contact. The first half of the book is divided into chapters on
Food, Fiber Craft, Fishing, Canoes, Houses, Wearing Apparel, Musical Instruments,
Games and Sports, Medicine, Relion, Death and Burial, and even a chapter
on War and Weapons! One fascinating discovery for me was that, unlike
the rest of Polynesia, Hawaiians use of the coconut for food was very
minor! The original Hawaiians were probably dismayed to discover
that the Islands had almost no food plants when they arrived, but they
quickly discovered that there were plants for almost everything else.
There are numerous excellent drawings. The last half of the book
has 98 photos of Hawaii's plants (mostly natives). The only drawback is
that they are in black & white instead of color. Beatrice Krauss
has had a long association with the Lyon Arboretum at the University of
Hawaii.
In ancient Hawaii the kahuna were far more
than the priests of a religious order. They were experts, trained in a
variety of skills and occupations, the learned and professional men and
women of their time. On them rested the responsibility of preserving and
advancing knowledge within their specific discipline. They arrived at
their positions only after more than two decades of training.
L. R. Mcbride collected information about the kahuna for many years through
extensive research in 19th century writings and interviews with Hawaiian
people. In this fascinating account he gives an accurate and unsensational
account of what the kahuna really meant in the Hawaiian culture of long
ago. McBride includes fascinating legends and stories concerning individual
kahuna. Illusrated with reproductions of historic prints, photographs
and drawings by the author and others, The Kahuna presents a readable
introduction to a fascinating aspect of ancient Hawaiian culture.
This is a neat
little book! The first 21 pages of this little gem cover background
material, including "Words of Warning," a brief but very complete
discussion on preparation tools and techniques, and a list of where to
find specific plants, including which ones you can cultivate. Then
there is an alphabetical listing of 53 plants with descriptions and which
part of the plant is used. The last 25 pages consists of an alphabetical
listing of ailments and how to use which plants for the ailments.
Some of these plants are available or can be grown off-island too.
If you want just
ONE grand book on Hawaiian culture, this is the one to get !! This text
has been used by Hawaiian Studies teachers in Hawaiian schools for over
20 years. It was revised in 1992, so it's been kept fairly up to
date. This book is a tour-de-force of Hawaiian culture. Just
to give you an idea, here are the chapter headings: The
Pacific - Origins & Migrations - Geology & Geography - Communication
- Chants, Musical Instruments & Hula - Poetry and Prose - Religious
Beliefs & Practices - Symbols of Royalty - Planters & Their
Products - Preparing & Serving Foods - Fish & Fishing - Transportation
- Games & Pastimes - Thatched Houses & Other Structures -
Clothing - Maintaining Physical & Mental Health - The Land & the
People - Warfare & Weapons.
Can you think of anything they left out ??
Of course, in 298 pages, they can't cover all of that in extreme detail,
so a lot if the material is more overview than in-depth coverage.
But the text is tightly written, so what the author does manage to pack
in is absolutely amazing. What really tops it off is that each
chapter has an EXTENSIVE bibliography.
This
is the most comprehensive book that I've seen on Hawaiian tattoos.
Contrary to what you see on people's bodies in Hawai`i today, traditional
Hawaiian tattoos were almost exclusively patterns. What about the
fierce mano tattoos? Nope, not traditional. Armbands? Nope,
not traditional. "Ski" Kwiatkowski (yes, he's part Hawaiian)
covers almost everything known about Hawaiian tattoos in his fascinating
book. (His brother, Larry, is an informed, respected and frequent
poster to the "KanakaMaoliAllies" Internet list.) Chapters include:
A Brief History of Tattooing;
Techniques and Terminology; Tattoo Designs and Their Relatives; Basic
Geometric Designs; The `Aumakua; Flights of Fancy - Proof of Grief - Marks
of Shame; Evolution and a bibliography!
If you are interested in actually GETTING
a Polynesian-style tattoo, then I recommend
Trisha AllenTrisha Allen's TATTOO TRADITIONS. She
is a doctoral candidate in anthropology at the University of Hawai`i,
Manoa and has done many tattoos for many Polynesians on both sides of
the Pacific.
The author of
this captivating deck is an assistant professor of communications at the
University of Hawai`i in Hilo who specializes in intercultural communication.
Becker has spent many years connecting “with the natural and spiritual
worlds of Hawai`i” according to the biography in the almost 200 page book
that acompanies this deck of 44cards. It shows. The artwork on the cards
defies description - it’s wonderful and accurately portrays Hawaiian cultural
concepts and values while maintaining a definite aura of mystery and intrigue.
The book is a
virtual primer on the Hawaiian culture. Each card’s description consists
of three sections: a brief relevant chant, a thorough explanation of the
cultural concepts that are pictured on the card in a teaching section
and an interpretation section that explains the card’s meaning in a layout.
Becker also provides the reader with 8 different spreads to use for different
purposes. Becker’s book has several other important features. There are
extensive endnotes that provide excellent resources for further exploration
of the Hawaiian culture, and an addendum that describes all of the symbols
on each card, including their Hawaiian names.
My only criticism
of this deck for fortune-telling purposes is that some of the cards’ interpretations
are complex and difficult to connect to the image on the card. Again,
this can interfere (initially) with intuitive use. But whether you actually
use the deck for fortune telling or not, it’s a “must have,” and studying
all of the information here will teach you a lot about Hawai`i. I did
give them a try, and my first reading produced some pretty incredible
results (chicken skin kine). This deck will take a lot of study for a
non-Hawaiian to use effectively, but I think the effort will pay off.
Blackburn’s book
is very well organized. Each of the seven main chapters is devoted to
a specific island group, including New Zealand (Aotearoa), Hawai`i, Tahiti,
the Marquesas, Easter Island, Samoa and Tonga. Each chapter follows the
same basic pattern: an introduction to the island group and it’s social
structure, a brief history, the group’s tattooing practices, endnotes
and extensive illustrations. The illustrations are really what make this
book stand out; they are amazing. The sources for this material are wide
in scope and include artists’ renderings from historical voyages, postcards,
book illustrations, paintings, statues, photographs and “cartes de visite.”
In turn, each section on tattooing (and the illustrations that follow)
covers the tattoos’ origins, purposes, patterns and the effects of western
and missionary contacts on them. It’s very well done.
(Go here
for a more comprehensive review.)
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|
HAWAIIAN ANTIQUITIES, by David Malo
POLYNESIAN RELIGION, by E.
S. Craighill Handy
PLANTS in HAWAIIAN CULTURE, by Beatrice Krauss
PRACTICAL FOLK MEDICINE of HAWAII, by L.R. McBride
Mana
Cards: The Power of Hawaiian Wisdom